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Transportation

Americans have always been a people on the move—on rails, roads, and waterways (for travel through the air, visit the National Air and Space Museum). In the transportation collections, railroad objects range from tools, tracks, and many train models to the massive 1401, a 280-ton locomotive built in 1926. Road vehicles include coaches, buggies, wagons, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and automobiles—from the days before the Model T to modern race cars. The accessories of travel are part of the collections, too, from streetlights, gas pumps, and traffic signals to goggles and overcoats.

In the maritime collections, more than 7,000 design plans and scores of ship models show the evolution of sailing ships and other vessels. Other items range from scrimshaw, photographs, and marine paintings to life jackets from the Titanic.

This is the original builder’s half hull model of the famous ship Young America, constructed by the renowned shipbuilder William Webb in 1852/53 at his New York shipyard. Measuring 243 feet long on deck and 1,961 tons, the Young America was an extreme clipper, characterized by a sharp bow and long, narrow hull. Constructed lightly for speed and commonly sailing the harsh waters of Cape Horn off the southern tip of South America with crews of up to 100 men, clippers often lasted only about ten years before being sold to foreign owners.

Costing $140,000 to build, the Young America set a number of speed records. It sailed from New York to San Francisco 20 times, averaging 118 days per trip. Its reputation for strength and speed earned high freight rates—its maiden voyage from New York to San Francisco earned $86,400. The clipper traded mainly between Liverpool, New York and San Francisco, but also sailed to China, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, the Philippines, Mauritius and other countries. After a very long and profitable 30-year career, the Young America was sold to Austrian owners in 1883 and renamed the Miroslav. In February 1886, the ship cleared Delaware for a trading voyage and was never seen again.

Half hull models were the first step in the construction of a ship. They were carved out of horizontal strips of wood known as lifts, and only one side was needed since ships are symmetrical. After a model was approved, its lines were taken (measured) and it was disassembled. Then the lines were lofted, or drawn at full scale on the floor. The actual ship’s frames were cut to fit the lines on the floor and then set in place along the keel during the construction process. Sometimes the models were discarded or even burned as firewood after use, but many original examples are preserved today.

Knowing the best locomotives were made in England, Robert Stevens ordered one from Robert Stevenson & Company of New Castle for the Camden and Amboy Railroad which ran across central New Jersey. The "John Bull," named later for the mythical gentleman who symbolized England, was the result.

The locomotive was built as a standard 0-4-0 Planet class. Never seeing a locomotive before, Isaac Dripps, a young steamboat mechanic, assembled the engine from the parts that arrived in New Jersey in September 1831. It was tested that same month. The locomotive proved vulnerable to derailment. Dripps installed an extra pair of wheels, carried in a frame out front. Stevens called them "guide wheels"; they helped to steer the locomotive in curves and over uneven rails. The innovation worked so well that the Camden and Amboy bought 15 American copies of "John Bull" with the added wheels. By the end of the 1830s, American manufacturers were building locomotives and exporting to Russia and other countries that had vast terrain much like America.

The steam locomotive "John Bull" ran for 35 years, pulling trains of passengers and cargo between the two largest cities of the time, Philadelphia and New York. A short ferry ride connected Camden with Philadelphia and a longer ferry run connected South Amboy with New York. The locomotive propelled trains at 25 to 30 miles per hour.

This is a 1-1/2" scale model of the Puffing Billy, a locomotive built in 1813-1814 by William Hedley, superintendent of the Wylam Colliery near Newcastle, England. The model shows a horizontal boiler, two verticle cylinders and two rocking beams.

Hauling 50 tons at its normal operating speed of 5 mph, the locomotive did the work of ten horses at considerably less cost. Hedley’s success helped establish the locomotive as an economic and practical machine. The Puffing Billy was retired in 1862 and may now be seen at the Science Museum in London.

The steamer Savannah holds pride of place in American history as the first steamboat to cross the Atlantic. Measuring 98’-6” and 320 tons, the little two-decker began as a sailing vessel at a New York shipyard. Local ship captain Moses Rogers and his partner William Scarbrough of Savannah, Ga. formed a Savannah-based steamship line, and Rogers had the shipyard convert the vessel to a 75-hp auxiliary steamer for a total cost of $66,000. It was luxuriously appointed, with 32 berths in 16 cabins, full-length mirrors, mahogany-lined public areas, and other amenities.

On May 22, 1819 the Savannah cleared Savannah, Ga. under steam for Liverpool. It carried 25 cords of wood and 1,500 bushels of coal for fuel, but neither a single passenger nor any cargo. No one—not even the owners—trusted the new technology enough on the open ocean to invest their own money. On the 29-day passage to Liverpool, the Savannah operated its engines for about 100 hours, or 16% of the time. The rest was spent under sail.

The failure to secure any paying cargo or passengers altered the company’s plans for transatlantic service. The steamer left Liverpool for Stockholm, Sweden on July 23, 1819, again unladen. Under steam 28% of the passage to Sweden, the Savannah became the first steamboat in the Baltic on August 13. Capt. Rogers declined an offer for the ship from Swedish King Charles XIV for $100,000 in hemp and iron, as well as an offer from Russian Tsar Alexander for an exclusive monopoly on steam navigation in the Black and Baltic Seas.

The Savannah returned to Savannah in November 1819 and almost immediately sailed for Washington, DC. After two months in Washington, Rogers had failed to interest the U.S. Navy in his vessel, and it was sold to Capt. Nathan Holdridge of New York. He promptly removed the engine and began packet service between New York and Savannah. On its first voyage in October 1820, the Savannah sailed with 24 passengers and a full cargo hold. Ironically, four of its prior owners consigned cargo aboard the ill-fated vessel, now that it was an old-fashioned sailing ship. After a successful year as a packet, the Savannah wrecked at Fire Island, NY on November 5, 1821.

In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt designated May 22 as National Maritime Day, in honor of the day that the Savannah hoisted anchor on its inaugural transatlantic passage. The Smithsonian has Savannah’s original logbook detailing that pioneering voyage.

Date made

1961

cleared Savannah, Georgia

1819-05-22

sailed from Liverpool to Stockholm

1819-07-23

sailed in the Baltic

1919-08-13

returned to Savannah

1819-11

sailed from New York to Savannah

1820-10

wrecked at Fire Island

1821-11-05

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt named May 22 as National Maritime Day in honor of the Savannah

This is a 1/2 inch scale model of the engine and tender that represent the general service locomotive, Dunham built around 1837 by H. R. Dunham & Co. of New York City for the Harlem Rail Road. Contemporary drawings reveal that Dunham closely followed Baldwin’s Lancaster design. The locomotive model shows a 4-2-0 wheel arrangment. Steam locomotives are often classified by wheel arrangement, in the order of leading, driving, and trailing wheels. This engine has four leading wheels, two driving wheels, and no trailing wheels.

The proliferation of new railroads encouraged many small machine shops to enter the locomotive business. While some of these firms, like that of M. W. Baldwin, would produce many engines and make a fortune, most, like H.R. Dunham & Co., built only a few machines and went out of business. Dunham constructed sixteen locomotives from 1836 to 1838 for the New York and Harlem, the Camden and Amboy, the Michigan Central and several other lines.

This is a 1/2" scale model of the Gowan and Marx, a 4-4-0 freight locomotive built in 1839 for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. The model consists of an engine with two inclinded cylinders, horizontal boiler, a domed firebox and a four wheel tender.

As trains grew longer and heavier, railroad companies needed more powerful locomotives. One way to increase power was to build machines with more driving wheels, or powered wheels. However, such locomotives had previously proved too rigid for the rough tracks of early American railroads, derailing often or damaging the track. On the Gowan and Marx, locomotive builders Eastwick and Harrison of Philadelphia introduced the equalizing lever, a spring suspension that distributed the engine’s weight over three points. In this arrangement, each of the four driving wheels could bounce independently as the engine negotiated rough track, greatly improving stability and traction. According to John H. White in American Locomotives: 1830-1880, the equalizing lever, which allowed the successful operation of engines with multiple pairs of driving wheels, “was possibly the most important American contribution to locomotive design.” Eastwick and Harrison’s equalizing lever proved so successful that it was used through the end of steam locomotive construction in the 1950s.

Steam locomotives are often classified by wheel arrangement, in the order of leading, driving, and trailing wheels. The Gowan and Marx has four leading wheels, four driving wheels, and no trailing wheels. It is therefore classified as a 4-4-0 locomotive. When compared to an earlier 4-2-0 type engine, like Baldwin’s Lancaster, the 4-4-0’s additional pair of driving wheels brought a great increase in power. Intended for slow speed, heavy coal trains, the Gowan and Marx performed extremely well; on one occasion, it pulled a 101-car train of 423 tons at an average speed of 9.8 miles per hour. After 1840, the 4-4-0 or “American type” became the most popular locomotive in the country. The exceptional performance of the Gowan and Marx greatly enhanced the reputation of Eastwick and Harrison. They were subsequently invited to Russia to build locomotives for the Moscow and St. Petersburg Railway.

The packet ship Shenandoah was built in 1840 by John Vaugn & Son at Philadelphia, Pa. for Thomas P. Cope & Son, better known as the Cope Line. Wealthy Philadelphia Quakers, the Copes transported about 60,000 passengers—mostly Irish immigrants—from Liverpool to Philadelphia from 1820-1870.

Measuring 143’ long and 738 tons, the Shenandoah spent nearly its entire career on the Philadelphia–Liverpool passage. It made 14 voyages for the Cope Line from 1839-44. In 1845 it sailed for the Dunham & Dimon Liverpool Line out of NY, but the following year it returned to Philadelphia for the Black Diamond Line. By 1847 it served the New Line, clearing Philadelphia on the 1st of the month and leaving Liverpool five weeks later, on the 8th of the following month. In the late 1840s, it lost its popular captain to the new Collins ocean steamship Atlantic. Many of the old sailing packet companies lost their captains to the newer and faster transatlantic steamship lines. The Shenandoah was abandoned at sea in August 1854.

This is a model of a small and relatively unknown locomotive that is actually one of the most important benchmarks in American railway engineering. The "Brother Jonathan" was the first engine to have a leading truck. It was more than a short-lived prototype because it remained in regular service over twenty years.

It was completed for the Mohawk and Hudson in mid-1832 by the West Point Foundry to a design furnished by John B. Jervis. This contract price for the engine, less tender, was $4,600. Its designer apparently based the plan on what he felt were the better designs of Robert Stephenson, a British locomotive builder. The boiler, valve gear and crank axle bear a strong resemblance to those parts of the Stephenson locomotives. However, Jervis recognized the need for a more flexible running gear and so radically changed the four square, rigid British plan by introducing a leading truck. This idea proved wonderfully effective, as already noted, but Jervis' design for a coal burning boiler proved less than successful. It would be many years before hard coal was regularly used for locomotive fuel. In the winter of 1833 a new deep and narrow wood burning firebox and a wire screened hood over the top of the smoke stack were added. The engine's name, originally the "Experiment," was probably changed at this time to "Brother Jonathan."

Even in its original state the engine performed well. An employee of the West Point Foundry tested the engine for speed in August of 1832 with remarkable results. He said she was the "fastest and steadiest engine I have ever run...." Fourteen miles, including one stop for water, was made in thirteen minutes, and one mile was clocked in only 45 seconds. In the time when the horse was man's fastest courier, this test was miraculous. Yet surely these racing trips were rare because trains on the Mohawk and Hudson were operated at 19 mph in respect to safety and economy.

The locomotive was rebuilt and enlarged in 1846 as an eight wheel engine and either sold or retired around 1853.

On April 26, 1607, three passenger ships reached the shores of modern-day Virginia. The largest, named the Susan Constant, carried 54 members of a 105-man colonization mission. Arriving thirteen years before the Pilgrims landed at what is now Plymouth, Mass., this group of Englishmen came in search of gold and glory in the New World under the direction of the Virginia Company. Their founding of Jamestown began a long and checkered chapter in American colonial history.

Built in 1605 near London, and leased from Dapper, Wheatley, Colthurst and Partners, the Susan Constant was barely a year old when the Jamestown passengers spotted land near Cape Henry at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Under the command of Captain Christopher Newport, the journey from London to Virginia took approximately four and a half months. Following its departure on December 20, 1606, the Susan Constant spent six weeks floating idly in the English Channel, waiting for the right winds to carry the passengers to their new lives. Unlike the colonists, the Susan Constant did not stay in Virginia, but sailed back to England filled with timber.

In the past, there has been some confusion over whether the ship’s name was Susan or Sarah Constant. According to a 1625 manuscript transcribed by Rev. Samuel Purchas, when discussing the journey of the Jamestown settlers, His Majesty King James I’s Council on Virginia referred to a ship named Sarah Constant. However, multiple accounts given by the original colonists, as well as the leasing companies, indentify the ship as Susan Constant or, more simply, Susan. No record of a Sarah Constant has ever been found in sources from the time period, and historians have since chalked the confusion up to a clerical error on the part of the Council.

In 1991, the Commonwealth of Virginia financed a $2.14 million life-sized reproduction of the Susan Constant. The ship took a short tour of the Chesapeake Bay area in 2007 as part of Jamestown’s 400th Anniversary Celebration, and can now be seen in the Jamestown Settlement National Park.

This model of the Susan Constant was given to the Smithsonian in 1998 as a gift from its builder, John W. Chapman.

The RMS Mauretania was a British ocean liner owned by the Cunard Steamship Company. Designed to be fast and luxurious, the vessel was launched in 1907, and began its first transatlantic voyage on November 16. Carrying a total of 2,165 passengers and 812 crew members, the Mauretania set a world record in 1907, arriving in New York from Europe in five days, five hours, and ten minutes.

The Mauretania burned 850 to 1000 tons of coal per day depending upon its traveling speed. When running at full speed, the liner boasted the equivalent of 70,000 horsepower. In June 1909 it made the Atlantic crossing in four days, 17 hours, and 21 minutes. This was the fastest time ever recorded, and the Mauretania was awarded the Blue Riband prize. This record stood for 20 years.

British architect and landscaper Harold A. Peto designed the Mauretania’s interior spaces. Peto created elaborate and luxurious rooms, drawing inspiration from French chateaux and the Italian Renaissance style. It took 300 woodworkers two years to carve the Mauretania’s interior decorations.

Like other ocean liners, the Mauretania could be converted for military use during times of war. During World War I, the British Admiralty called on the Mauretania to serve as an armed cruiser and hospital ship. The liner was re-painted in dazzle paint, a quilted camouflage technique used to distort the ship’s silhouette and confuse enemy U-boats. The Mauretania carried 33,610 American soldiers across the Atlantic on seven separate voyages. In May 1919 the liner retired from government services.

That same year, the Mauretania was converted to run on oil. It continued work as a passenger liner until 1934, steaming back and forth across the Atlantic. During its tenure, the Mauretania sailed enough miles to circle the globe sixty times. In April 1935, the Mauretania was sold and broken apart.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt had a special fondness for the Mauretania and donated this model of the ship to the Smithsonian in 1935.